Techno-economic process optimization for a range of membrane What real value for carbon

Membranes provide a unique opportunity for heavy industry decarbonization and a real solution requires optimal system design. We use a superstructure process model to minimize capital and operational expenses for postcombustion carbon capture systems. We consider membranes having CO2 permeances between 100 and 5000 GPU and selectivities for CO2 over N2 ranging from 10 to 300. For the four heavy industry-representative cases studied, we find membranes with selectivities approximately above 30 have essentially the same economics. When the permeance of CO2 is above 1000 GPU, and the selectivity is between 20 and 30, we find that membrane systems can achieve low capture costs ($20 to $55 per ton) and high energy efficiencies (150 to 500 kWh per ton). A quantitative relationship between membrane properties and optimized process economics enables effective product development for commercial applications.